Saturday, February 27, 2010

I was up in Edmonton a couple days this past week for work, and took the opportunity to join Dean for some life drawing. Whereupon, I discovered that life drawing would be much more fun if I wasn't such a talentless hack. Some of the other artists there are able to produce awesome works in mere minutes, while I can barely draw an outline before the models change poses. But regardless, here are a few that I thought turned out okay.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

My Diana Mini seems predisposed to accidentally switching to bulb mode - the lever is loose and easily switched from N to B. In shooting my last roll, I ended up with a good dozen or so shots that were accidentally shot on bulb without me noticing, resulting in a series of rather 'thick negatives.' My scanner has enough issues with cross processed negatives to begin with, so coaxing anything out of these extremely overexposed negatives was a chore. Having said that, I did manage to squeeze a few interesting shots out of them when I converted the scans to B&W. They go extremely grainy, which I like. All shots taken during a lunchtime photowalk in downtown Calgary.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

We woke up before 9:00am yesterday (On a Saturday?! GASP! SHOCK!), and took an impromptu road trip down to a wind farm just north of Glenwood in southern Alberta to snap some photos. The drive is approx. 2 hours, so by the time we were halfway there, and the weather was still a crappy foggy/ misty overcast day of absolutely zero contrast, it was already too late to turn back. When we got down there, you couldn't see row upon row of wind turbines as I had hoped (due to the fog), and the light was that flat garbage lighting that kills any drama in a landscape shot... I shot a few obligatory snaps, and we headed to Lethbridge for lunch and killed few hours there. As we began our return home, however, the mist began to burn off, and in the final hour of the sun's descent, the light actually became dramatic enough to warrant a detour for a second attempt at shooting the wind farm. The first 3 photos here were shot around noon in that garbage light (look at that perfectly detail-less sky). The latter were shot about 5 hours later, with the sunset breaking through the clouds at the horizon.

This last one is just a variation of the one above, after some heavy massaging in Lightroom.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

I feel like I've spent the last couple weeks doing everything BUT shooting pictures. So when the family departed today after a weekend CNY visit, I took the opportunity to go out and snap a few pics around the neighbourhood - we've had some serious fog lately, and a bit of snow, which has just blanketed our local foliage with a picturesque coating of hoar frost.

Friday, February 12, 2010

So this is shaping up to be a pretty crammed weekend considering it's Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, and Family Day long weekend all in one. Unfortunately, both of us work for the Feds, and we don't get Family Day off. Apparently, our public service motto should be 'Your Federal Public Service - NOT giving a shit about families since 1990!'

Anyways, we have family coming in to celebrate the new year, so I'm doing my V-day post a couple days early. Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours... just remember to think twice before you go and buy some overpriced flowers or trinket to express your affection for someone - are you doing it because society dictates that this is the ONE day of the year you must pretend to be lovey-dovey and romantic, or are you doing it because you genuinely want to (in which case, why does it have to be this day?)...

Statue of Cupid and Psyche, the Louvre, Paris. Original photo taken with a Nikon D40x, then processed with an iPhone app.

A shot of the backside of The Basilique Sacre-Coeur du MontMartre, Paris, where I proposed... sappy. Whatever.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

The best camera you own is the one you have on you. So while sometimes I wish I had my Holga or my D300 with me everywhere I go, that's just plain not practical. Enter the craptastic iPhone 3G and the Shake It photo app from the app store. Instant Fauxlaroid goodness.

This is a quartet of the Calgary firefighters in action during last week's big Chinatown fire. The blaze started at 4 in the morning, and they were still dousing it by 2 in the afternoon.